Why can't Oregonians pump their own gas? Let us count the reasons

View full sizeJoseph Rose/The OregonianCommuting columnist Joseph Rose pumps his own gas at a Vancouver filling station. Remarkably, he didn't blow himself up or endanger any small children.

Let me tell you about 1985's dead battery of a winter in Wenatchee, Wash.

I was in high school. Weekends meant riding around in cars with friends. Just cruising. Singing along to Springsteen. Burning fuel to fight small-town boredom. Cheap fun.

One night, five of us were packed into my friend Mike's Volkswagen Rabbit. Mike's voice cut through the rowdy laughter: "I need to get gas." The glowing Exxon sign beckoned. He pulled into the station, where a lanky figure with a greasy wool cap stood next to the pumps. My dad.

He was desperate for a paycheck. The only job he could find: Pumping gas at a service station.

That memory popped up when a new transplant going by "Wisconsin Guy" recently asked me for a simple answer to a bedeviling question: "Why can't I pump my own gas in Oregon?" Actually, I get that a lot from newcomers.

Oregon and New Jersey are the only remaining "Pump For Me" states. Back in 1951, when Oregon first mandated that only trained station workers could put "Class 1 flammable liquids" into cars, the state mainly didn't want people accidentally blowing things up.

But despite big safety advances in pump and auto technology, Oregon voters and legislators have resisted changing things. In fact, the statute contains 17 justifications for the self-serve ban. They run the gamut from protecting small children left in cars to preventing spills to keeping older drivers from "unreasonable discomfort."

"The justification that's cited most often is that the law creates jobs," said Oregon State University economist Patrick Emerson. Of course, Emerson, who writes about "life, liberty and the pursuit of self-service gas" on his blog, is convinced the ban is not only archaic but actually drags down the economy.

Oregon drivers, Emerson estimates, pay an extra 3 to 5 cents more per gallon because stations must employ about 9,800 attendants. Ultimately, he said, businesses and consumers as a whole have less money and time to create even better jobs.

I don't know if I buy the spill-over economics theory. Oregon's gas is typically less expensive than Washington or California, according to the AAA. Also, I conducted my own timed runs at seven gas stations – two self-serve locations in Vancouver and five hands-off-the-nozzle spots in Beaverton, Portland and Gresham. Letting a pro handle my credit card and gas in Oregon added no more than 34 seconds at the pump.

"I don't know why people can't do it themselves," said Kibrin Weldu, an attendant at the 76 station at Portland's Southeast 161st Avenue and Stark Street. "But I know I'm glad to have a job."

That brings me back to my dad and that Exxon station in Wenatchee, which went self-serve years ago. It hurt to see him there, "serving" my friends, miles from his dreams, looking embarrassed, unsure if he should say hello. "Hey, Pop," I said. He smiled. One of the guys asked: "Is that your dad?" Yep. My working class hero.

I see my dad -- now a successful small-business owner in Chelan, Wash. -- in guys like Weldu. It's a below-the-belt job, but it feeds and heats. Those paychecks are small, but count for something.

Oregon can be a silly place. Self-serve suicide (with a physician's assistance) is legal, but you still face a $500 fine for filling your own tank. But its residents get stubborn about tradition. Live here long enough, and you'll find your own reasons to buy into what once seemed crazy.